Posted on 23 Feb 2009
Sales of vehicles will stabilise in the first quarter (Q1) of the year due to more attractive financing and government intervention to encourage spending.
According to Kenanga Research, although vehicle sales would “remain lukewarm on prolonged macro-economic condition and lack of new mass-seller models this year”, the negative impact would be cushioned by lower car loan rates and Government initiatives to encourage spending.
Kenanga said in a report Monday while it still maintained a “neutral” call on the automotive sector, there were “signs of stabilisation of the total industry volume (TIV) at least in Q1”.
It said the average monthly sales for Q1 of between 38,000 to 40,000 units was “deemed positive” and remained the key to forecast target before any re-rating.
Kenanga said it was maintaining TIV sales of 460,000 units against the Malaysian Automobile Association’s (MAA) 480,000.
Last Friday, the MAA said sales of passenger and commercial vehicles in January contracted 17.5% to 37,801 from a year ago and was down 5.1% month-on-month.
Proton closed at RM1.75 per share last Friday. UMW closed at RM5.35, Tan Chong at RM1.15 and MBM at RM2.49.
